Lawrence Lessig

Just as the early Internet thrived in the absence of centralized control (putting the "intelligence" at the edges of the network, with open protocols at the center), so, too, will software thrive if set free at its most critical, foundational layers. This talk sketches the boundaries of protection that intellectual property law should set on code, but argues that extremism is now defeating these limits, just as perpetual copyright has in the media world. The consequence is an environment within which modular creativity is increasingly constrained.

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law and John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School. Professor Lessig is chairman of the board of Creative Commons and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. He sits on the board of directors for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Public Library of Science. In 2002, Lessig was named one of Scientific American's "Top 50 Innovators," and the American Bar Association recently awarded him the Cyberspace Law Excellence Award.

From 1991 to 1997, Lessig was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He then became the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. In 1999-2000, he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin before moving to Stanford in 2000.

Lessig teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, law and high technology, Internet regulation, comparative constitutional law, and the law of cyberspace. His book, Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace, was published by Basic Books, and his most recent book, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, is available from Random House.